


Fish

by Mashew



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Gen, Human AU, Human England, Mertalia, merman america, technically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:15:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27224860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mashew/pseuds/Mashew
Summary: Alfred, a young merman, takes a liking to Arthur, the strange man who moved into the previously vacant lake house on the shore of Alfred's lake. After a while of simply watching him, Alfred decides to say hi.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6





	Fish

**Author's Note:**

> The title's weird because i used an Inktober prompt for this. While Alfred might have a bit of a crush on Arthur if you really squint, their interaction is completely platonic. I apologize if I butchered either of the characters, especially the way Arthur speaks. I'm not too familiar with anything to do with England, having lived in the US my whole life, and I find his character a bit hard to write. I hope this was still enjoyable though! I’m also not too happy with the ending, but overall I think it turned out okay.

Alfred was perched on the root of a tree on the edge of the lake. He sat there every Saturday, waiting for a certain blond man to come down from his house to sit on the dock for the morning. And every Saturday, without fail, the man would come down from his house by the lake, a mug in one hand and a fishing rod in the other, and spend the morning fishing on the dock. And every Saturday, without fail, Alfred would watch the man, fascinated.

Alfred had always been interested in humans. They were so similarly to mermaids, and yet so different too. They had their legs, two of them to move around on the land, and yet they often chose to get into the water anyway. It wasn’t like they were supposed to be there. Alfred had heard stories of humans dying in water. They couldn’t breathe in it like mermaids could. They seemed to tire easily, too. Sometimes they’d swim too far away from the shore and then panic when they realized they couldn’t get back. That’s how Alfred had first learned humans couldn’t breathe underwater. He had watched the human fall under the surface, and then never come back up. And yet, despite how unfit humans seemed for the water, they kept coming back. Summer after summer, humans of all ages would come to his lake to swim and play around.

Honestly, Alfred enjoyed it when they came. He might not have ever tried to talk to them — in fact, he tried very hard to stay away from them — but he still enjoyed their company from afar. Humans didn’t seem to take kindly to anything being in the water that wasn’t human, and Alfred was no exception, so he left them alone most days (unless he was trying to save them from drowning, which did happen every so often, because he was a hero, and that’s what heroes do.)

This blond man though, the one Alfred would wake up super early for, just so he could watch him fish, he wanted to be the exception. Alfred wanted to be this man’s friend.

He’d been watching him ever since he moved into that little lake house not too far from the shore. It was an ugly thing, in Alfred’s opinion. The colors didn’t match at all, and even on their own they didn’t seem fit for a house in this location, or any location. The way the man decorated the house didn’t help at all, either. He could see curtains with a horrid pattern through the windows (with shutters on the outside that didn’t match the windows or the doors), and the cushions on the chairs out on the back porch weren’t that pretty either. The house had been empty for so long, that Alfred had forgotten what it was like to have someone living there, and it surprised him when this man moved in. He didn’t think anyone could hate themselves enough to move into a house like that. And yet this blond man did.

That’s part of what made him so interesting to Alfred, though. He wasn’t like most other humans that Alfred had seen. To be honest, Alfred wasn’t sure if he’d ever seen a human like him, and that just made him want to befriend the man that much more.

Alfred looked up at the house at the sound of a door shutting. It didn’t matter much though, he knew that sound by heart, and knew the exact sight that would greet him, that greeted him every Saturday morning. His blond man, with his mug and his fishing rod, walking down the gravel path to the dock, with his awful plaid pants and an equally awful sweater to match. God, this man had no taste. And yet Alfred had been incredibly fond of the man, for a while now. Despite his awful fashion sense, horrible fishing (and by the smell of the food he brought down every so often, cooking) skills, and uncomfortably large eyebrows, Alfred was enamored with this human, and was determined to get to know him.

Which was why today, Alfred was going to finally go and confront him, maybe-possibly-hopefully make him his best friend. He couldn’t imagine it would be that difficult, as the man had never seemed to have visitors in the however many years he’d been living in that house. He figured the man was pretty lonely, and being the hero he was, Alfred was going to save the day by being this man’s friend.

He waited until the man had settled in his chair before sinking under the water and making his way to the dock. He wasn’t exactly sure how he would go about introducing himself, but he knew he didn’t want to startle the man, and just flat out swimming toward him from the tree and confessing to watching him every time he came down there probably wasn’t a good way to do that.

There really wasn’t an easy way to make his presence known, though. Humans didn’t like mermaids, and usually freaked out when they saw one. Alfred could try and pretend to be a human swimming around, but that would still raise the question of where he came from, as it was fairly obvious from the lack of man-made noise and suitable housing around the lack that the man was alone. Maybe he could try and show he was there without breaking the surface, but Alfred didn’t want to be mistaken for the fish the man could never seem to catch and end up being attacked or blamed for scaring the fish away when he went to say hi.

In the end, Alfred decided the best course of action would be to just pop out of the water and try not to be too intimidating. He just hoped he wouldn’t scare the man too bad.

He swam a bit of a ways away from the dock, and after a moment of hesitation slowly pushed his head out from under the water. Immediately, the blond man’s attention snapped to him, and they sat there for a moment just staring at each other, Alfred with an anxious grin on his face and the other looking at him in complete shock.

“Uh, hi.” Alfred waved his hand to wave, realized that might look stupid, and opted to brush his hair out of his face instead. “I’m uh, I’m Alfred. Hi.” The man only continued to stare at him, and Alfred chuckled nervously. Hey, at least the man wasn’t running away screaming, he supposed.

“Where the bloody hell did you come from?” The man said finally, incredulous. “I know for a face I’m all alone out here.”

“Uh yeah, about that,” Alfred looked around, trying to stare at anything but the man before him, suddenly very embarrassed. “I’ve been, um, watching you, for a while now. Since you first moved in, really. Which was quite a surprise, considering how ugly that house of yours is, if it can even be called that. I have no idea how anybody could stand to live there.”

“My house is perfectly fine!” The man started, much to Alfred’s amusement, but his frown quickly changed to confusion as he processed the first part of what Alfred had said. “Wait, what do you mean, you’ve been watching me?”

Alfred turned around and pointed to the tree he had come from. “I sit there and watch you like every Saturday. Have been since the first time you came down to the dock to fish. Which, by the way, you’re horrible at.” The man huffed, offended, but didn’t say anything about it. “Why in the world have you been watching me? Don’t you have anything better to do?”

Alfred chuckled and ran his hand through his hair. “Not really. You’re the most interesting thing out here. Besides, you’re kinda cute, and fun to watch.” The man turned red again, making Alfred laugh.

There was a pause before the man spoke again. “How come you could have been watching me from the time I first moved in, if I’m the only one who lives out here?”

“You’re not,” Alfred said, swimming closer. “You’re jus the only one with a house out here. I’ve lived here as long as I can remember.”

“So, you’re homeless then? Why would you choose to live in a place like this?”

“No, not homeless.” Alfred paused to gesture to the water around him. “The lake is my home. And I didn’t exactly choose to live here, this is just where I am.”

The man furrowed his brows. “How could your home possibly be the lake?”

Alfred didn’t immediately answer, and looked down through the water, at his tail. He knew the obvious response was to tell the man that he was a merman, but he wasn’t sure how well the man would take it. Alfred was doing good so far, he didn’t want to go and mess that up. At the same time though, he couldn’t see any other option.

“I’m uh,” Alfred started, getting quiet again. “I’m a merman.”

He looked up at the man when he heard him snort. “Yeah, and I’m the bloody Queen of England.”

“No, really. I am. I could show you.” Without waiting for a response, Alfred dove down, making sure he was still close enough to the surface that his tail would show above the water as he was coming back up.  
He looked at the man to see him staring at him with wide eyes. They sat in silence again, Alfred getting increasingly nervous and the man trying to process what was going on. Alfred was growing more sure by the moment that the man was going to run away and never come back, and he was going to lose the only real source of entertainment and socialization he had.

Instead, the man simply let out a shaky breath. “Well, alright then. I guess that makes sense.”

Now it was Alfred’s turn to be confused. “You’re not freaked out? Usually humans either attack me or run away screaming.”

The man chuckled. “Well, you’re certainly not the strangest thing I’ve seen. And it’s hard to deny what you are when you do something like that.”

Alfred let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding and smiled. “So you’re not scared?”

The man shook his head, and Alfred smiled wider. “Well that’s great! ‘Cause I’ve been really wanting to talk to you for a while now. You seem interesting.” The man smiled at that.

“Well alright then, I suppose a chat couldn’t hurt. You said your name was Alfred, yas?” Alfred nodded, and the man hummed in acknowledgement. “It’s nice to meet you, Alfred. My name’s Arthur.” He went to hold out a hand, but quickly retracted it when he realized the merman was a bit too far and the dock a bit too tall for them to shake hands.

“It’s cool to meet you too! Arthur’s a bit formal though, mind if I call ya Artie?” Alfred laughed when Arthur’s face reddened yet again, and laughed harder when he sputtered out an “Absolutely not!”

“Alrighty then, Artie it is. I can already tell we’re gonna be great friends!”


End file.
